


Chance Encounters

by Merfilly



Series: Age Old Friends [2]
Category: Forever Knight, Highlander: The Series
Genre: Crossover, F/F, Fragments of Sappho Challenge, Introspection, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-22
Updated: 2010-09-22
Packaged: 2017-10-12 02:25:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/119763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's 1975 and Janette runs into an old friend in a new city.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chance Encounters

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired from [Interesting Allies](http://archiveofourown.org/works/102860)

_1975_

There was a sense of familiarity about the small person moving up ahead, Janette decided. She was still trying to settle into her newly chosen city, getting a feeling for just how it pulsed around her. It felt invigorating, as ever, to be prowling anew, learning the tricks of this city's denizens. Now, though, she felt herself being sidetracked by the way the person ahead was moving. The pace was quick and decisive, yet at the same time, it was shrouded in a lithe grace of concealment.

It was as she saw her quarry take to a fire escape that Janette was able to catch a glimpse of the almost pixie-like face. Memories flooded in as the grace and looks combined to identify the woman ahead as none other than Amanda. Oh, but that would make life far more interesting, to know that some of the intriguing immortals were about. Janette toyed with the idea of following, but the thief was likely working. The vampire could afford to go find a meal and return once Amanda had gone through with her intent here.

`~`~`~`~`

Amanda's nerves twanged as a woman fell into step with her, only five blocks from her quite successful heist of the night. It would serve that no-good, two-timing, Jezebel-loving.... She pulled her head off the reason she had crossed a continent for a simple revenge heist and focused on the person that had caught up to her so silently as to draw no notice until they were in step.

The profile, such a beautiful face full of mischief waiting to unfold, was familiar enough for Amanda to put away most of her paranoia.

"It's been some time, Janette."

"So it has, Amanda." Janette gave a tiny smile, not showing her teeth, the one she saved for private amusement. "Good hunting for both of us, n'est-ce pas?"

Amanda had to laugh at that. So Janette had seen her before her entry into that poorly warded clap-trap of an apartment her ex had taken up in. "Perhaps." She then took in Janette's clothing, with the silken camisole under the broadly open 'peasant' blouse, the choker of a black velvet ribbon with a deep-red rose off to one side, over the high-waisted, flare-legged pants along with the increasingly popular platform shoes. "Settled into the decade, have you?" she teased, just to draw a slight laugh out of her friend. "What do _they_ think of the new fashions?"

"I don't know. I left Nicholas to his own devices, and LaCroix...is still not happy with him."

Amanda immediately turned an interested, happy look toward the other woman. "Really, now...that would mean you are here, all on your own?"

"Mmm, I do think that is what it means."

They walked on, companionably close, Amanda letting Janette take the lead on where they went. Eventually they came to Janette's door, with Janette tilting her head in silent question to Amanda.

The Immortal was never one to say 'no' to any invitation as silken as Janette's mere existence.

`~`~`~`~`

Janette cradled her goblet in her hands, letting the heat of it seep into her awakening skin. Fabulous ways to warm her 'wine' kept being invented to her gracious avarice in purchasing them. Across from her, Amanda was dressed in her other robe, as neither woman had felt much like dressing, hands cupped around a mug of coffee.

"You pretend more lively manners than the last time." Amanda sipped the coffee, her eyes pointing at the various signs of food in the house.

"Mmm, these days, the police seem to need little reason to search a domicile. Better to bring a few things home every few nights, than to give them reason to build a file."

"Files do get irritating." Amanda grinned at that. "So why here?"

Janette shrugged her shapely shoulders. "Why not? You're here. What brought you?" she evaded.

Amanda's eyes narrowed. "I got tipped off that this is where my ex came to dodge the draft."

Janette lifted one graceful eyebrow. "An American this time?"

"The last one for at least a century!" Amanda declared. She then shook her head. "No. He is past now, and it is time to move on!"

"You always have done that so well." Janette sipped her drink, slowly and savoring the warmth on her tongue.

"You're not still sore over that?" Amanda asked, half-laughing.

"He was handsome, and you ever have enjoyed the company of danger," Janette conceded. "At least it got you well away before LaCroix had reason to know you were the reason his most recent interest had run away into the day."

Amanda laughed fully, and this time Janette joined it. When they quieted, Janette leaned forward a bit more, eyes catching the other's in seriousness. "How do you keep doing it, Amanda? Why do you risk your heart to the short lives of the mortals?"

Amanda thought about the question, curious, and pressing at it in her own head, because Janette was that rarity in her life. She was both friend and lover, one who had willingly aided her a number of times, without ever asking much in turn. It was only fair, even by Amanda's very wide interpretation of that ethic, to try and answer honestly.

"I think because it boils down to how much a risk Immortals are for me. Those of my kind tend to want my head. Or would, if they saw me as weak enough to get away with it. Your kind..." Amanda grinned at her. "No offense, Janette, but some of you guys really creep me out."

"There must be more," Janette said impatiently. "You could just avoid them, or stay with the few you trust, as I do when I travel with Nicholas or LaCroix."

Amanda shook her head. "I don't know what to answer. Other than you may be overestimating the amount of openness I give them," she told her friend.

"You care enough to take revenge." Janette finished her drink, but continued to play with the goblet.

"Well, a lady must have some joy in these things," Amanda admitted. "Why is it weighing on you? Is that part of coming here?"

Janette shrugged one more time, eloquent in her body's expression of the ennui with relationships. "Part of it. I wanted the surge of learning a new place, and it had been time to move on." She set the goblet down. "Perhaps in another few decades, I will know." She rose to go indulge in a long, steamy bath to throw the rest of her chill off, while Amanda finished her coffee.

It did not take long for Amanda to decide 'fair' lay in giving what company she could, and she followed to the bath, her robe pooling on top of Janette's inside the sybaritic bathroom. Each woman knew a deep love, and knew the pain of not being able to stay close to the object of that affection, yet neither would say so in open conversation. All they could do was be distracted from the worlds they lived in, charged by the turmoil of a life at odds with their wishes.

`~`~`~`~`


End file.
